Date: Monday 29 June 2026
Time: 10:30am – 12:00pm AEST
Venue: Novotel Sunshine Coast Resort
Cost: included in registration
Making Space for Belonging: Part-Time Students and the First Year Experience
Belonging is a foundational element of the First Year Experience (FYE) in higher education, significantly influencing student engagement and success. The 2026 FYE Constellation group will centre its focus on belonging, drawing on Associate Professor Kelly Linden’s (2025) research on the experiences of part-time students. Through a World Café style conversation, participants will engage in cross-disciplinary dialogue to explore the topologies of belonging (Gravett, Rola Ajjawi & O’Shea, 2025) — the varied, shifting ways students connect with their institutions, peers, and learning environments. Part-time students often navigate complex personal, professional, and academic commitments, which can shape fragmented or fluid senses of belonging.
By creating space for these voices in this session, we can compare more deeply our understandings of how belonging is experienced. The collaborative World café approach encourages us to connect across disciplines, roles, and contexts, fostering a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by part-time learners. We hope that the insights generated through these conversations will offer participants a powerful lens for reimagining a more inclusive, flexible, and responsive support structure that reflects the realities of diverse student journeys.
Ultimately, this work invites us to shape new ways forward together, grounded in empathy, equity, and a commitment to student success.
Gravett, K., Ajjawi, R., & O Shea, S. (2025). Topologies of belonging in the digital university. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 33(2), 597–611. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2023.2256342
Facilitators
Dr Kathy Egea, SFHEA and 2021 STARS Fellow
Senior Lecturer and UTS FFYE Program coordinator
Education Portfolio
University of Technology Sydney
Kathy.egea@uts.edu.au
Dr Kathy Egea leads the UTS First and Further Year Experience (FFYE) program, a systematic approach to enhancing the student transition journey through their degree programs grants, learning community, forums and resources). She connects and leads faculty transition coordinators (academics) and with an’ advisory’ non faculty team to ensure that faculty and student support are cognisant of current challenges. She co-authored with academic Jacquiline Melfold the inaugural First Year Transition module for Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching (CAUT) MOOC.
Associate Professor Kelly Linden
2025 ACSES Equity Fellow
Faculty of Science and Health
Charles Sturt University
klinden@csu.edu.au
Associate Professor Kelly Linden is a 2025 ACSES Equity Fellow. Over the last 9 years, Kelly has developed and led a first-year transition program across Charles Sturt which has resulted in a number of publications and national awards. Her research interests are supporting part-time students, kindness, success and retention with a particular focus on supporting first-year students.
Dr Cat Picton
Student Success and Development Coordinator,
University of the Sunshine Coast
cpicton@usc.edu.au
Dr Cat Picton leads and implements a pan-university, embedded approach to student development focussing on cross-disciplinary skills and competencies within curriculum. Her research interests include student engagement, student success and academic student success advising, with a focus on the regional university student experience. Cat has a keen interest in the recognition of integrated ‘third space’ practitioners who work across professional and academic boundaries.
Dr Sarah Teakel
Lecturer, Animal Anatomy and Physiology
School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences
Charles Sturt University
steakel@csu.edu.au
Dr Sarah Teakel is a Lecturer teaching first-year Anatomy and Physiology, promoting inclusive teaching through Universal Design for Learning. Sarah embedded university-wide tutor support to increase first-year student retention and success. Her research interests enhancing student retention and student success, and support for equity students including those living with a disability.
Mr Neil van der Ploeg
Academic Lead, Retention Team
Division of Student Success
Charles Sturt University
nvanderploeg@csu.edu.au
Neil has been seeking to understand and research student transition and success at Charles Sturt for the past 5 years. He is currently undertaking a PhD in student success while developing and implementing practical interventions to improve student outcomes.